Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 17th, 2007

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Can we have a recorded vote, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay. That's a fair request.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 4)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Congratulations, Mr. Karygiannis.

The third item on the agenda is the press release that the committee directed me to put in place.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, I would like to be given a little bit of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We'll have a look at that after the press release.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'm wondering if you want me to allow the clerk to photocopy it, so that after we discuss the press release everybody can have a copy of this, because I'm the only one that seems to have it. This was addressed to you. It's from the minister to you.

It's from the minister to you, pretty well rapping our knuckles about the way that—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I'm going to deal with the press release first, because this is three times we've postponed this. Then we'll try to see if we will deal with what you have there.

The committee directed me recently to put in place a press release on the fact that Citizenship and Immigration were calling on government to reject the proposed politicization—

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Chair, I don't have a copy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We're going to ensure that you get a copy in a moment.

I was directed by the committee some time ago, about a week or so ago, to do a press release on the immigration committee's call for the government to reject the proposed politicization of the Immigration and Refugee Board, or IRB, appointments. It reads as follows:

By a vote of 7-4, the Standing Committee on Citizenship & Immigration passed a motion urging the government to reject the fifth recommendation of the Public Appointment Commission's report on the appointment process at the Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). A recently released Public Appointments Commission Secretariat report recommended that the current Advisory Panel and the Selection Board be merged and that both the Minister and the Chair each be given the ability to appoint three of the six members of the new panel. The opposition members of the Committee disagreed with the 5th recommendation and called on government to reject it. Norman Doyle, MP and Chair of the Committee, indicated that the Citizenship & Immigration Committee has been hearing evidence on the IRB appointments process as part of its upcoming report on refugee issues, to be tabled in the House in the coming weeks.

Do you want to discuss that in any way, shape, or form, or do you want me to release it and let it go?

We will hear from Mr. Siksay and Mr. Alghabra.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I appreciate your putting this together, Mr. Chair, but I don't think it deals with two of the other key issues that were raised in the report that the committee passed and made to the House. I think that's the one you tabled this morning. Is that correct? There is the issue of the committee's feeling that there was a crisis at the IRB--that the lack of appointments constituted a crisis--and also that we were urging the government to immediately proceed to fill the vacancies by moving on appointments and reappointments.

I think that those two points need to be part of this. It wasn't just our rejection of the fifth recommendation, but it was our—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You mentioned the crisis in the IRB. What was the second point?

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Appointments and reappointments need to be made.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

It was appointments and reappointments.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Chair, you can take that motion that we passed last week. It has all the wording in there.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

In the third paragraph you've done commentary and tried to characterize the report. I think you need to add those two issues, because to my way of looking at it, they were key to the motion we passed and to that report.

If we're going to characterize it in the press release, I think that needs to be there. I would agree that we should attach the full report to the press release, but in the text of the press release I think we need to mention those two issues to be fair.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

What happened, Mr. Siksay, was the motion that we passed that was put forward by Omar last week, which contained those—

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

That's what I'm referring to.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

That's what this is about.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I raise exactly the same point as Mr. Siksay has just raised. I was going to suggest to add it in either the second or the third paragraph, where—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

“The opposition members of the Committee disagreed with the 5th recommendation and called on government to reject it”, and then—

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Yes; it's because this press release basically reduces our motion to the fact that we just disagreed with the fifth recommendation, but the report also talked about a situation of crisis and also the paralysis in appointing and reappointing IRB members.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay. Do you want to give it to me again and let me bring it back here?

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

I think we can do it right now, Mr. Chair.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

We can add it right now, I think.